Dairy

Annual Incomes
Unlike for horticulture, as yet there aren’t any sources of data to indicate the range of current net annual incomes being generated in the UK at dairy farms employing regenerative or holistic land management practices. Currently, there are just a few indicative sources to look to: Christine Page has produced indicative net incomes from raw milk, cream and butter sales based on her experience on 12-acres at Smiling Tree Farm. Christine can be contacted directly for her financial template:    smilingtreefarm.com/dont-be-shy The LWA’s publication New Entrant Example Start-Up Costs (2019)    provides two case study farms with dairy cows, including (gross) income from milk and cheese sales:    https://landworkersalliance.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/New-entrants-costs-website.pdf The ELC’s publication, Small Farm Profits (2018), provides a simplified example of income at a micro dairy on 12-acres with 6 cows selling milk through a milk vending machine:    https://ecologicalland.coop/small-farm-profits

Start-Up Costs
The LWA interviewed a dairy cow farmer on 35-acres selling fresh milk    locally though a milk delivery scheme, and a mixed farmer producing     cheese. Their start-up costs are detailed in New Entrant Example    Start-Up Costs (2019):    https://landworkersalliance.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/New-entrants-costs-website.pdf Christine Page from Smiling Tree Farm has a blog with many resources to help develop a business plan for a dairy cow business:    smilingtreefarm.com/our-blog. She also has developed a financial template for micro-dairies, which includes typical start-up costs, as well as a cash-flow and profit and loss. She is happy to share the template and can be contacted via her website:    smilingtreefarm.com/dont-be-shy The BSDA offers to connect aspiring sheep milk producers with established producers so that they can talk with them about start-up costs (among other things), although the producers are unlikely to be focused on regenerative or ecological land management practices:    sheepdairying.com/sheep-dairying Although now in need of updating, CALU produced ‘technical notes’ for organic dairy goats and sheep, as well as water buffalo, which provide a helpful introduction to each sector:    calu.bangor.ac.uk/technotes.php.en Alex Heffron of Mountain Hall Farm has written an introduction to small-scale dairying, with links to keeping cows, goats, and sheep:     lowimpact.org/lowimpact-topic/dairying/ Latest prices for equipment and tools can be checked on suppliers’    websites. Table    4 list suppliers.

Yields
There are many sources of data for milk yields, both organic and non-organic, but these aren’t useful to you if you’re intending to set-up, for example, a cow-calf dairy with lower yields: The NBDC provide average milk yield by breed of dairy cow within conventional farming systems: statistics.nbdc.uk/statistics The AMOS Report (2017) provides the milk yields being achieved at four small-scale dairy holdings (see Appendix 1, Table A1.3 in the report). Smiling Tree Farm runs a 100% grass-fed holistic cow-calf dairy with daily yields per cow of around 8L and recommends new entrants plan on 6L until they have established a good working system with their cows and calves. Smiling Tree Farm website has detailed resources on their compassionate cow-calf management practices via a series of blogs on cow-calf dairying:   smilingtreefarm.com/blog/cow-calf-dairying-pirates-code-1 You can also contact the farm directly for advice:        smilingtreefarm.com/dont-be-shy Domesticanimalbreeds.com provides milk yields for different breeds of sheep within conventional farming systems:    domesticanimalbreeds.com/10-best-sheep-breeds-for-milk/ In the largest survey of commercial dairy goat farmers, reported goat milk yields ranged from 700 to 1,800 litres/goat/year, median 1,022 litres/goat/year. CALU    in their introduction to water buffalo farming provide expected milk yields for buffalo:     calu.bangor.ac.uk/Technical%20leaflets/040201WaterBuffalorev5.pdf

In conversion of milk to cheese, a rough estimate is that every 10 litres of milk will give you 1 kg of cheese for cows and goats milk. Ewes milk yields will be higher because of its higher fat and protein content.

Production Costs
Christine Page from Smiling Tree Farm has prepared a financial template which    contains typical figures for direct costs. Provided for free on request: smilingtreefarm.com/dont-be-shy The Farm Management Handbook’s (2019) section on organic dairying contains typical costs for AI, replacement costs, vet and medicines and other expenses:    fas.scot/downloads/farm-management-handbook-2019-20. The AHDB provide average market price for hay and straw, and cow and heifer prices, updated monthly:    ahdb.org.uk/dairy/hay-and-straw-prices;     and ahdb.org.uk/cow-heifer-prices Latest prices for consumables and milk testing can also be checked on suppliers’ websites. Tables 3 & 5 list suppliers.

Sales Prices
There are easily accessible sources of data for milk and dairy products prices, such as from the Soil Association and AHDB, but these prices aren’t representative of the prices achieved by micro dairies employing regenerative or holistic land management. Dairy produce from these dairies is sold at a higher price due to higher welfare and land stewardship standards, and has higher nutrient levels in the milk. Existing dairies with a similar sales model and ethos would be a better source for expected prices. These dairies include:

Existing High-Welfare Dairies Calf            at Foot Dairy the-calf-at-foot-dairy.co.uk            (cow) Laverstoke            Park Farm laverstokepark.co.uk/produce/dairy            (buffalo) Mountain            Hall facebook.com/MountainHallFarm            (cow) Old            Hall Farm oldhallfarm.co.uk            (cow) Plaw            Hatch Farm plawhatchfarm.co.uk            (cow) Smiling            Tree Farm smilingtreefarm.com            (cow) Stroud            Microdairy stroudmicrodairy.co.uk/            (cow) Tablehurst            Farm tablehurstfarm.org.uk/post/the-tablehurst-dairy            (cow) Taw            River Dairy tawriverdairy.co.uk/            (cow)